DiplomatiCon Workshop Spaces of Formal and Informal Diplomacy in the Premodern Mediterranean
DiplomatiCon Project (Power in History: Centre for Political History, and Centre for Urban History) and the Research network “Routes and Roots in Colonial and Global History”- N.W. Posthumus Institute are glad to announce the upcoming two-day interdisciplinary workshop on the spaces of formal and informal diplomacy in the Premodern Mediterranean.
Keynote speaker: Zoltán Biedermann (University College London)
Location: University of Antwerp; City campus, S.SK. 203 (Kattenstraat 10, 2000 Antwerp)
Fernand Braudel’s 1949 seminal study La Méditerrannée inspired a continuous expansion of the field of Mediterranean studies. Scholars have found the Sea to be dividing, corrupting, connected, claimed, contested, or shared. The guiding principle, however, appears to have been to reduce this space to a single unit of analysis. While the scale of that space may vary, its uniformity has seldom been questioned. It is often assumed that different polities and communities claimed a monopoly over that space. Yet, their perceptions or ideas about it may not only have differed but may also have been multi-layered and contingent on circumstances.
This workshop aims to reappraise the Mediterranean space, taking into consideration the various actors and institutions that have been in contact or have been involved with the sea during the medieval and early modern periods. The goal is to question and nuance the great narratives of the Sea, and to break this single space into appropriate units of analysis. Several aspects have been looked at in the definition or delimitation of this Mediterranean space—geography, ecology, politics, religion or economy—that are usually taken separately and independently of each other. This workshop aims to bring nuance to the issue by shifting the perspective from monolithic concepts to actor-oriented emergent patterns. Instead of imposing definitions from the outside, it seeks to identify various spaces and their limits from within. This can be achieved by identifying the actors involved, the mechanisms through which spaces emerge, and the purposes they serve.
We are interested in exploring how spaces were produced and experienced by the actors themselves, the institutions and structures that facilitated this production, how these spaces were perceived and communicated to a broader audience, and potential variation in the permanence of different types of spaces and their uses. We further aim to complement traditional research by applying quantitative methods, spatial analysis, and GIS.
If you wish to attend the workshop, please register via DiplomatiCon@uantwerpen.be
September 18, 2025
9:00 Welcome and Introduction (Malika Dekkiche, UA)
Panel 1: 9:15 - 11:00
Chair : Isabella Lazzarini (UniTo/UniBo)
Discussant : Zoltan Biedermann (UCL)
Evelina del Mercato (UA, UniBo), « Mapping Intelligence Networks: Milan’s Information Strategies in the Late 15th-Century Mediterranean »
Gianluca Ratti (UA, UniBo), « Familiarity, novelty, absence: describing socially constructed spaces from Venice to Cairo »
Nicolò Zennaro (UA), « Sailing Politics. The diplomatic agency of Venetian galleys’ captains in the medieval Islamic world »
11:00-11:30: Coffee
Panel 2: 11:30-13:00
Chair : Roser Salicrú (CSIC-Barcelona)
Discussant : Oscar Gelderblom (UA)
Giacomo Mastrogregori (UA, Barcelona), « ‘Per la convicinità e per gli huomini che ha’: Naples' Information Network and the Eastern Mediterranean during the Reign of Ferrante d'Aragona (1458-1494) »
Imma Petito (Salerno, VUB), « Merchants on the Move: Multilayered Networks in Anglo-Italian Diplomacy (1461-1509) »
13:00-14:30 : LUNCH with Poster session
Panel 3: 14:30-16:00
Chair : Iason Jongepier (UA)
Discussant : Léa Hermenault (Amsterdam)
Davor Salihović (UA), « Patterns of Cross-Mediterranean Connectivity via Mathematical and Statistical Models of Spatial Networks »
Taylor Zaneri (UA), « Conflict and Coexistence in the Late Medieval Mediterranean »
16:30-17:00 : coffee
17:00-18:30 : Keynote Zoltan Biedermann (UCL), “Revisiting the Atlantic Mediterranean: connections and disconnections across an open sea”
19:00: Dinner (for participants)
September 19, 2025
Panel 4: 9:00-10:30
Chair : Joris Beckers (UA)
Tom Gheldof (KUL), « Developing a gazetteer for historical toponyms: case studies for Mediterranean place names »
Piraye Hacigüzeller (UA) , «Spaces of the Ancient World: Materials and Materialities»
Panel 5: 11:00-12:30
Chair : Frédéric Bauden (ULiège)
Davor Salihovic (UA), Taylor Zaneri (UA), Bogdan Smarandache (ULiège): DiplomatiCon Database
Elise Franssen (ULiège): DiplomatiCon exhibition